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HEALTH DEPARTMENT UPDATES STATEWIDE COVID-19 CASE COUNTS

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The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) today announced that 452 additional Hoosiers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 through testing at ISDH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and private laboratories. That brings to 39,146 the total number of Indiana residents known to have the novel coronavirus following corrections to the previous day’s total.

Intensive care unit and ventilator capacity remains steady. As of today, more than 38 percent of ICU beds and more than 83 percent of ventilators are available.

A total of 2,214 Hoosiers are confirmed to have died from COVID-19, an increase of 16 over the previous day. Another 182 probable deaths have been reported based on clinical diagnoses in patients for whom no positive test is on record. Deaths are reported based on when data are received by ISDH and occurred over multiple days.

To date, 335,180 tests have been reported to ISDH, up from 327,342 on Thursday.

To find testing locations around the state, visit www.coronavirus.in.gov and click on the COVID-19 testing information link. More than 200 locations are available around the state.

Gov. Holcomb to Provide Updates in the Fight Against COVID-19

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Gov. Eric J. Holcomb, the Indiana State Department of Health and other state leaders will host a virtual media briefing to provide updates on COVID-19 and its impact on Indiana.

 

WHO:             Gov. Holcomb

State Health Commissioner Kristina Box, M.D., FACOG

Department of Workforce Development Commissioner Fred Payne

Bureau of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Peter Lacy

 

WHEN:           2:30 p.m. ET, Friday, June 12

Arrest for Death Of Baby

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On Wednesday June 10, 2020 at approximately 11:00 pm, officers were dispatched to a medical emergency in the 1100 block of Covert Ave. The caller stated that a three-month-old child was not breathing and cold and limp. Attempts to resuscitate the child were unsuccessful. 

The child has been identified as Kendrick Caruthers. The child’s father Rashid Caruthers, 23, has been identified as the suspect. He has been arrested for neglect of a dependent causing death. The investigation is ongoing and no further details will be given at this time.

Civic Center Will Reopen To The Public Monday, June 15

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civic center

The Civic Center Complex will reopen to the public on Monday, June 15, 2020, at 8 a.m.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, several restrictions and safety precautions will be in place.

Visitors will be required to wear a face covering and have their temperature taken. Anyone with a temperature above 100 degrees will not be permitted inside the building.

There is additional signage on floors to encourage social distancing of six feet apart and new capacity limits — two per cart — on public elevators.

Plexiglas protective shields have been installed in security screening areas, the lobby and high-traffic departments.

Building Authority staff will continue cleaning and disinfecting high-touch areas several times throughout the day. Public restrooms are being cleaned multiple times per day. Meeting rooms, restrooms and other high-traffic areas of the complex have been professionally disinfected.

“As we reopen the building, safety and public health remain our top priorities,” said Mayor Lloyd Winnecke. “These new measures will provide a sense of assurance for those needing to do business with local government.”

The Civic Center closed in March after Mayor Winnecke and the Vanderburgh County Commissioners issued an emergency proclamation at the request of County Health Officer Dr. Kenneth Spear.

“While the Civic Center was closed, essential government work continued non-stop,” said County Commission President Jeff Hatfield. “Providing residents access to their government is an important symbol of reopening our community.”

Residents are still encouraged to use online and over-the-phone government services when applicable. A list of online City services can be found at evansvillegov.org/onlineservices. For more information about online County services, visitvanderburghgov.org.

Commentary: Afraid Of Fear Itself

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Commentary: Afraid Of Fear Itself

By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – So, to make America great again, we’re all supposed to be terrified of 75-year-old unarmed men.

This is particularly true if they fall easily and bleed a lot.

John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com

That’s the latest theory President Donald Trump has advanced.

He has accused Martin Gugino, the old man Buffalo police pushed to the ground and sent to the hospital, of being a terrorist. There’s not a single piece of evidence to support the president’s charge.

Gugino apparently is a staunch Catholic who believes in social justice. He’s an activist who doesn’t seem to be a fan of the president’s, but there are a lot of Americans, the polls tell us, in that category now.

Trump based his smear of Gugino on something he saw on OANN, which has become his preferred news source now that even the softball coverage he gets on Fox News wounds his tender sensibilities. The reporter who suggested that Gugino might be a provocateur long has trafficked in conspiracy theories and once worked for Sputnik, the news agency established by the Russian government.

Really.

The Russian government.

A development such as this wouldn’t be believable in a bad spy novel, but it seems like it’s just another day at the office in Donald Trump’s America.

There is so much to unpack in this latest bit of Trumpian insanity.

Let’s start with the question of gullibility.

Some explain Donald Trump’s improbable rise to the presidency by arguing that he is some sort of Queens-born Svengali, a con man extraordinaire who can sell his credulous base almost anything.

But there may be another way to look at it.

It’s entirely possible that the reason this president has such a powerful connection with the people who support him is that he’s every bit as gullible as they are.

That he will swallow any bit of nonsense, however ridiculous, if it flatters his ego, appears to advance his personal interests, or attempts to explain away his deficiencies or failures.

Such an interpretation would make it easier to understand why he would see a frail, 75-year-old unarmed man as a grave threat to a phalanx of heavily armed and armored police officers. It also might explain why this self-proclaimed business wizard and master deal maker has declared bankruptcy at least six times.

When it suits his purposes, this president is perfectly capable of believing his own con.

But let’s also talk about the issue of fear.

We’re now all supposed to be frightened to death of peaceful protesters exercising rights guaranteed to them in the very U.S. Constitution Donald Trump took an oath to uphold and defend.

But the thought of those protestors gathering seems to shake this president right down to his loafers. That’s why, when they showed up at the White House after he unwisely escalated the controversy, the commander-in-chief scurried to the bunker for safety.

(It’s fun to imagine the alarms that rang through the White House at that moment: “Good Lord! They’re outside and they’re wearing Birkenstocks! Take cover!”)

The reason Donald Trump likes to keep Americans scared all the time is that frightened people can’t think straight.

If they were thinking straight, they might realize he hasn’t delivered on a single campaign promise he made.

There is no wall along our southern border and there’s not likely to be one ever. He hasn’t restored jobs to the industrial sector or prosperity to rural America. He hasn’t reduced the cost of health care in America or made it more readily available.

Even the triumphs Trump touts have been illusory. The economic growth he crowed about prior to the pandemic was both slower and less robust during Trump’s first three years in office than in Barack Obama’s last three.

Worse, it was heavily weighted toward the top rungs of the economic ladder. The middle-class Trump swore to defend, the numbers showed, kept sliding ever closer to poverty.

The pandemic hastened that trend, but it didn’t create it.

All this means is that the people who put Donald Trump in office have little to show for the faith they placed in him.

No wonder he’s tweeting that he and they ought to be scared witless by an unarmed frail old man.

It’s either the only card he’s got to play.

Or he really is that frightened.

FOOTNOTE: John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

The City-County Observer posted this article without bias, editing or opinion. Anyone who would like to respond to Mr. Krull pointed Commentary will post it in the City-County Observer without bias, opinion, or editing.  

Voters Say Congress Must Act Now to Ensure Multiemployer Pensions Survive

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NEW POLL: 2 in 3 Voters Say Congress Must Act Now to Ensure Multiemployer Pensions Survive

New Data Shows Overwhelming Support for “Shared Solution” to Protect Essential Blue-Collar Workers and Seniors

 WASHINGTON, DC – The Retirement Security Coalition (RSC) today released a survey that found 2 in 3 voters (67%) believe Congress cannot afford to wait any longer to address the multiemployer pension crisis. Despite 95 percent of those polled not belonging to a multiemployer pension plan themselves, there is broad, bipartisan understanding that changes are urgently needed and a desire to see those changes made immediately.

“Voters have made it clear they want urgent protection for the multiemployer pensions of blue-collar workers and retirees, whose financial security has been weakened even further by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said RSC Co-Chair and Former Chair of the House Democratic Caucus Joe Crowley. “At a time when the country needs its elected officials to come together to restore financial security, tackling the multiemployer pension crisis is an issue both sides of the aisle agree is necessary.”

In addition to voter recognition of the crisis, the poll’s findings indicate strong support (66%) for a comprehensive “shared solution,” as well as government assistance and added oversight tools to safeguard against future risks.

“Voters recognize that failure to reach bipartisan consensus on a shared solution to the multiemployer pension crisis would threaten the livelihoods of 10 million retirees and essential workers,” said RSC Co-Chair and Former Speaker John Boehner. “This poll confirms that inaction is not an option. Voters will not sit by as more seniors and American workers lose their retirement savings in plans that failed while following federal guidelines – a fate that has sadly befallen many Americans even in the midst of a pandemic.”

The survey results show:

  • Voter support is even greater (70%) for a U.S. Senator who votes to protect and fix multiemployer pensions for essential workers who have been working day in and day out during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Two-thirds of voters (69%) believe multiemployer pensions are in crisis and Congress must act now (67%).
  • Close to three-quarters of those polled (72%) are concerned about having a financially secure retirement, showing there is broad voter empathy for those in multiemployer pensions.
  • The majority of voters (63%), including a majority of both Democrats (73%) and Republicans (57%), are more likely to vote for a member of the U.S. Senate who makes pension reform a priority.

The poll’s findings come as the multiemployer pension system is further destabilized by COVID-19. As of April 2020, market downturns caused underfunding per active participant to increase by 75 percent. During the pandemic, two additional multiemployer plans were approved for benefit cuts by the Treasury Department. To make matters worse, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the backstop left to support collapsing plans, said in late 2019 that it reached a record $65.2 billion deficit and even before COVID-19, funds were expected to dry up by 2025.

To gauge public awareness and sentiment around multiemployer pension plans and their impending collapse, RSC commissioned a survey conducted by McLaughlin & Associates

among 3,000 likely general election voters in the targeted states of Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Each state has a random and representative sample size of 300 likely voters. All interviews were conducted online between May 8 and 14, 2020.

For more information about the poll, please contact press@retirementsecuritycoalition.com.

 About the Retirement Security Coalition:

Comprised of a diverse group of employers, labor unions, and policy experts dedicated to finding a common-ground solution to the multiemployer pension crisis, the Retirement Security Coalition is urging a bipartisan compromise to reinvigorate the multiemployer pension plan system in America. To learn more about the Coalition’s efforts to protect millions of Americans’ hard-earned retirement futures, please visit www.RetirementSecurityCoalition.com.

 

Faithful Say It’s Time to Gather. Some Governors Disagree

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Faithful Say It’s Time to Gather. Some Governors Disagree

 

Gathering to pray feels more important than ever for many Americans of faith, as COVID-19 cases top 2 million in the United States and communities roil with anger about police brutality and systemic racism.

Yet many governors and city leaders still prohibit large religious gatherings, angering some clergy — even those who backed pandemic-related restrictions imposed months ago — who see the continuing curbs on services as an attack on their civil rights.

Religious leaders, congregations and individuals have filed lawsuits against governors, mayors and other officials in at least 30 states.

President Donald Trump poured fuel on the fire two weeks ago. “I call on governors to allow places of worship to open right now,” he told reporters, calling the entities essential. “These are places that hold our society together and keep our people united.”

In late April, roughly 2 in 3 states had restricted or prohibited religious gatherings, according to the Pew Research Center. (The Pew Charitable Trusts funds the center and Stateline.) By early June, that number had declined to 20 states, according to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit law firm.

Any gathering could lead to the spread of the coronavirus, including church services, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown. In March, about a third of 62 worshippers at an Arkansas church tested positive for COVID-19. Three people died after two symptomatic people attended a service.

The CDC called a mid-March choir practice at a Washington state church a superspreading event after an asymptomatic attendee transmitted the disease to 52 of 61 people. The highly contagious gathering led to two deaths.

Courts have ruled that the government can restrict meetings to protect the public — but under the narrowest restrictions and for the shortest time necessary, said Gene Policinski, CEO of the Freedom Forum Institute and its First Amendment Center, in an interview.

“Any time government restricts our rights for any reason, it bears attention from all of us,” he said. “The government better have a pretty darn good reason.”

‘No Pandemic Exception’

Religious liberty advocates have been swamped with requests for help.

Scottsdale, Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom has represented 14 churches in lawsuits and assisted more than 2,500 churches and ministries.

First Liberty Institute, based outside of Dallas, Texas, received more than a hundred requests for legal help in the first half of May, significantly more than the few dozen they would have expected so far this year, according to attorney Jeremy Dys.

One client was On Fire Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, which sued the city after the mayor banned outdoor drive-in services leading up to Easter in April. A judge ruled the services could go on.

“We believe that beyond any shadow of a doubt it is crucial to be able to congregate with one another,” church Pastor Chuck Salvo said in a recent interview.

But judges also have ruled against such challenges.

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from a California church to strike down Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s restriction of places of worship to 25% capacity or no more than 100 people.

In Illinois, a federal appeals court denied two church requests to hold services in spite of Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s ban on religious gatherings. The judge said the lawsuit was ill-founded, selfish and could risk lives.

In Maine, a U.S. district judge denied a church’s motion for a temporary restraining order to allow it to hold an in-person service in early May. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills had limited gatherings to 10 people but allowed drive-in services. The judge ruled the state’s standards were uniform and did not violate the Constitution.

Most of the legal debate has revolved around consistent restrictions.

Religious groups shouldn’t be categorically exempt from government oversight, and governments have a legitimate interest to protect the public’s health, said Emilie Kao, director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.

“Government authorities, state or local, should be treating religion in an even-handed and fair way,” Kao said. “We’ve seen disparate treatment of religious groups, religious communities, where their ability to worship has been limited where similar-sized secular activities were allowed.”

For example, she said, Minnesota allowed malls to reopen before religious gatherings. Under the state’s plan, retail businesses could reopen at 50% capacity May 18. Religious gatherings were allowed at 25% capacity starting May 27.

And most religious groups, she said, want to follow health recommendations and keep congregants safe.

In Wisconsin, the Catholic Diocese of Madison had advised its parishes to follow state guidelines until May, when the state Supreme Court struck down Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ stay-at-home order.

The diocese released a plan to resume Masses at 25% capacity with distancing and other health measures, said Brent King, the diocese’s communications director. The diocese set up sanitation stations and asked congregants to sign up for Mass and refrain from congregational singing.

But officials of Dane County, which includes Madison, limited gatherings to 50 people and said it would fine churches in violation. The limit wasn’t an issue for smaller parishes, but seven of the parishes in the county can have close to a thousand attendees, King said.

So the diocese sought counsel from Becket Fund, the legal firm, which sent a letter June 3 to county officials saying the cap was unconstitutional. Two days later, officials changed the limits for religious services to 25% capacity.

“Given the virus, and now given the civil unrest, people need God,” King said in an interview. “People need God all the more right now.”

Dane County did not want to use taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit, said County Executive Joe Parisi in a statement. “COVID-19 is here, infecting more people every day and minimizing contact in large group settings is an incredibly effective approach to staying healthy.”

Changing Guidelines

After Trump’s news conference and detailed guidelines from the CDC that followed, a few states loosened restrictions on religious gatherings.

Guidelines lifting Minnesota’s ban on religious gatherings were released May 23, a day after the CDC’s.

Pritzker of Illinois released new guidelines May 28. The nine-page report gives a range of options for churches and advises against the riskiest activities: singing, group recitation, serving food and beverages, and person-to-person contact.

In some places, changing guidelines have led to confusion. The CDC, for one, quietly updated its guidelines within days of releasing them. The changes included removing warnings about singing as a risk for spreading the virus.

Unclear guidelines, in part, prompted a state lawmaker to introduce a bill in the Pennsylvania House to bar the governor from restricting participation in and travel to religious activities under a state of emergency.

In Wisconsin, the Catholic Diocese of Madison had advised its parishes to follow state guidelines until May, when the state Supreme Court struck down Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ stay-at-home order.

The diocese released a plan to resume Masses at 25% capacity with distancing and other health measures, said Brent King, the diocese’s communications director. The diocese set up sanitation stations and asked congregants to sign up for Mass and refrain from congregational singing.

But officials of Dane County, which includes Madison, limited gatherings to 50 people and said it would fine churches in violation. The limit wasn’t an issue for smaller parishes, but seven of the parishes in the county can have close to a thousand attendees, King said.

So the diocese sought counsel from Becket Fund, the legal firm, which sent a letter June 3 to county officials saying the cap was unconstitutional. Two days later, officials changed the limits for religious services to 25% capacity.

“Given the virus, and now given the civil unrest, people need God,” King said in an interview. “People need God all the more right now.”

“Given the virus, and now the civil unrest, people need God. People need God all the more right now.”

Brent King, communications director CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF MADISON

Dane County did not want to use taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit, said County Executive Joe Parisi in a statement. “COVID-19 is here, infecting more people every day and minimizing contact in large group settings is an incredibly effective approach to staying healthy.”

Changing Guidelines

After Trump’s news conference and detailed guidelines from the CDC that followed, a few states loosened restrictions on religious gatherings.

Guidelines lifting Minnesota’s ban on religious gatherings were released May 23, a day after the CDC’s.

Pritzker of Illinois released new guidelines May 28. The nine-page report gives a range of options for churches and advises against the riskiest activities: singing, group recitation, serving food and beverages, and person-to-person contact.

In some places, changing guidelines have led to confusion. The CDC, for one, quietly updated its guidelines within days of releasing them. The changes included removing warnings about singing as a risk for spreading the virus.

Unclear guidelines, in part, prompted a state lawmaker to introduce a bill in the Pennsylvania House to bar the governor from restricting participation in and travel to religious activities under a state of emergency.

AG Hill Terminated As Defendant In Groping Accusers’ Federal Lawsuit

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AG Hill Terminated As Defendant In Groping Accusers’ Federal Lawsuit

IndianaLawer
June 11, 2020 

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill has won a victory in the continued fallout of the sexual misconduct allegations against him, successfully moving a federal judge to dismiss him as a defendant in a civil lawsuit brought against him and the Indiana Legislature. Also, the state lawmaker who helped initiate the complaint has been dismissed as a plaintiff.

Chief Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on Tuesday terminated Hill as a defendant in the lawsuit brought by Democratic State Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon and current and former legislative staffers Gabrielle McLemore Brock, Niki DaSilva, and Samantha Lozano. The women sued Hill and the state last year after they say Hill drunkenly groped them at an early-morning party in March 2018.

After their allegations became public, the women say they were subjected to harassment and discriminatory behavior at the hands of Hill and their colleagues in the Indiana House and Senate. Their initial case – brought against Hill and the state – was dismissed in March.

In an amended complaint filed later that month, the women once again raised allegations of Title VII violations, this time against The Indiana House and Senate as their employers. Hill was also sued for state-law claims of battery, defamation, and false light invasion of privacy.

As with her March ruling, Magnus-Stinson on Tuesday dismissed without prejudice the state-law claims against the AG, with leave for plaintiffs to refile those claims in state court. The chief judge determined she did not have supplemental jurisdiction over any of the state-law allegations.

“While it is true that without Attorney General Hill’s alleged conduct at the Sine Die Celebration the Title VII claims would not exist, the focus of those claims is not on the battery itself, or the House’s and Senate’s failure to prevent battery,” Magnus-Stinson wrote in her order. “The focus of those claims is on the actions of Plaintiffs’ ‘colleagues, superiors, and subordinates’ – none of who is Attorney General Hill – after Plaintiffs accused Attorney General Hill of battery, and how the House and Senate handled those actions.”

Similarly, as to the defamation and false light allegations, the court said those claims “have no connection – loose or otherwise – to Plaintiffs’ Title VII claims against their employers.”

That leaves only the Title VII allegations against the legislative bodies, which were brought only by Brock, DaSilva, and Lozano. Thus, in addition to ordering Hill’s termination as a defendant, Magnus-Stinson also ordered Reardon’s termination as a plaintiff.

The chief judge ordered the parties to pursue the “efficient resolution” of the remaining claims. “To that end, the Court requests that the Magistrate Judge confer with the parties regarding a possible resolution of this matter short of trial.”

But the chief judge did decline Hill’s motion for sanctions against the four women. He had argued that they violated the court’s March order by re-filing the state-law claims in federal court and by “vexatiously multiplying” the proceedings.

Magnus-Stinson, however, said the second amended complaint raised viable federal claims, while the first did not. She also noted that she did not decide in her first order whether she had supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claims, while her second-order included that analysis.

Hill was represented in his individual capacity by Crown Point attorneys Geoffrey G. Giorgi and Izabela Bebekoski of Giorgi & Bebekoski LLC.

“Mr. Hill is pleased that the Court has again entered an order dismissing him from this action, leaving the remaining action in the federal court proceeding to address issues that did not and do not involve him in any way,” Giorgi said in a statement to IL. “The remaining claims against him that the Plaintiffs have alleged will be properly challenged in state court should the Plaintiffs attempt to file those claims in that forum.”

The women are represented by Indianapolis lawyers Kimberly Jeselskis, B.J. Brinkerhoff, and Hannah Kaufman Joseph of JBJ Legal. IL has reached out to a spokesperson for the women and their attorneys for comment.

The case is DaSilva, et al. v. Indiana House of Representatives, et al., 1:19-cv-2453.

The federal court ruling comes as Hill is serving a 30-day suspension of his law license for violations of Indiana Rules of Professional Conduct 8.4(b) and (d). The violations were also related to Hill’s conduct at the sine die party and after.

Finding the AG guilty of misdemeanor battery against all four women, the Indiana Supreme Court ordered Hill to begin his suspension on May 18. He’ll be automatically reinstated on June 17.

FOOTNOTE: Hill was not criminally charged in connection with the women’s accusations. 

Ivy Tech Evansville Student Named “DAISY” Award Recipient

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The Ivy Tech DAISY Steering Committee recently named Kyleigh Fehlinger, a student in the Ivy Tech Evansville Barbara J. Hilton RN School of Nursing, as the first Ivy Tech recipient of the DAISY Award for extraordinary nursing students. Kyleigh was chosen among ten other Ivy Tech Nursing students across the statewide system.

The annual award is designed to recognize a nominated nursing student who has:

  • A commitment to compassionate care
  • Make connections with clients, families, and peers by building trust and respect
  • Advocate strongly for clients and families
  • Demonstrate initiative and a positive attitude

Fehlinger balances her full-time job as a patient care technician at a local hospital in its intensive care unit with her coursework at Ivy Tech as a third semester ASN student. She serves as a leader among her peers, and is an active member of the Student Advisory Board; attending all faculty meetings and providing thoughtful suggestions and feedback to faculty. She is also active with the Southwestern Association of Nursing Students as well as Evansville’s Nursing Students Advancing as Individuals and Determined to Succeed (NSAIDS) group.

Fehlinger has served as a peer tutor helping others learn how to do dosage calculations, care planning, and pharmacology. Last fall, she and her sister organized a two-week drive “Warm Hands, Happy Heart,” to collect hats and mittens to donate to the Department of Child Services.

According to the DAISY Foundation, the DAISY Award was established by the family of J. Patrick Barnes in 1999, in an effort to recognize extraordinary nurses who provide exemplary, compassionate care to their patients. The DAISY Foundation now recognizes student nurses who go above-and-beyond caring for clients and their families.

For more information on the DAISY Foundation, visit https://www.daisyfoundation.org/. To learn more about the Barbara J. Hilton RN School of Nursing at Ivy Tech Evansville, visit https://www.ivytech.edu/nursing/.